Hi all,
Well I had an awful weekend! I decided to try and track down that
intermittant misfire so first things first, I decided to pull the suction
chambers, give the pistons, carbs etc a nice blast with the carb cleaner to
get everything nice and clean, reset the float height on the front carb -
off a mm or so. Reassembled and WHAM. Total misfire on the rear two
cylinders. Super rich, wouldn't change no matter how lean I went. Good
grief.. Didn't have any problems with the front carb. I must have spent
three hours on this thing going through the basics but no luck at all. Great
ignition, so not a problem there. I thought the jet was stuffed, and frankly
I'd had enough of 'half fixing' these things now the rest of the motor is in
good shape. So I decided to box them up and send them to sumidel.com for a
real examination, mainly to save my sanity. Spoke to Bill today and his
comments were 'A Dogs breakfast' - 'Rooted' etc etc! <G> So there you go.
Apparently I need new suction chambers, pistons, dampers, jets, throttle
shafts etc! No wonder I was having problems with them. Get this - these
aren't even MGA carbs, they're off a Magnette! So I feel better now knowing
they're in expert hands - frankly I would have rebuilt them myself, as I did
with my HS4's off my BGT but I didn't want to spend the 6 weeks fawning over
them like I did with the others, after all the A is more a daily driver.
Besides I would have never known they weren't MGA carbs or the dampers were
totally incorrect etc not to mention spotting a really worn piston as
opposed to a usable piston. Don't see enough of them for a start. Sometimes
it is best to leave it to an expert. At least when your sanity is
involved!!! <G>
After pulling the carbs I had to decide whether or not to fix the other
problematical things in readiness for summer or go watch the Telly. <G> Hard
choice. <G> So I pulled the radiator. It's going in for a recore tomorrow to
a 4 core setup and a short neck so I can fit a recovery tank. I'm also going
to go for a thermostatic fan as I'm freaking out about summer, it gets
filthy hot here. The radiator removal was extremely easy, easier than an
MGB actually.
I then tackled the hardest job I think I've ever done on any of my cars!
Removing the stupid Oil/Water guage! ARRGGH!! It must have taken me two
hours of contorting (I'm 6ft3") to get that bugger out! Firstly one of the
round nuts that hold the gauge in, refused to come loose, so I had to resort
to silly vice grips, and upside down under an MGA fascia there isn't a lot
of room! I don't even want to talk about removing the oil line connection,
or removing the capilliary tube line from the head and guiding all the way
back inside. lol! I can imagine kinking my brand new tube when I have to
reinstall it again.. noooOOOO! So finally after MUCH swearing I got the
little scumbag out. It's now at Olympic Instruments in Pymble getting
repaired, they did my Tacho off the GT years ago and did a great job for
little $. I figured there was no way I was going to drive around with no
temp gauge again, especially as the day I lost the gauge last year, just
*happened* ;) to be the same day I blew a head gasket.... *humph*
No I didn't have a good weekend. <G> But I feel better now that I know whats
wrong with the carbs, also that I'll have a decent cooling system, and I'll
know exactly how hot or cold my baby is. <G> Now if only I could install one
of them on my girlfriend... WHOOPS! <G>
Cheers,
Neil.
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